Tom McGuire mostly comes through with lo-fi and atmospheric, soulful, bluesy folk ballads with some oddballs thrown in. ‘Untitled’ is the ultimate in blues rock revivalism; Led Zeppelin’s influence is clear but with a marked symphonic tinge to it. His vocals are charming and full, but at once almost bleak.
Bland revivalism. Generally, this attempt to recapture the compositions and sounds of the darker side of new wave is just bland revivalism.
With album artwork from the art career of Ludus’ lead singer, Linder, and music reminiscent of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Scream, H.Grimace has put together a heavily nostalgic gothic post-punk album.
Kinning Park Complex, March 23
Hosting a launch party are The Workers Theatre, a new cooperative company that follows the premise of cooperative ownership: all jobs shared and all employees also employer and owner. Henry Bell and Harry Giles, two of the members, say that after the success of “Megaphone”, their recent Kickstarter for representation of minority artists, the main goal is to get their theatre open to the public. For the moment, however, they have a short term goal of a festival in the summer.
Saboune pays as much dividends to her late Joy Division and early New Order influence as she does (oddly) to Amy Lee and the late Lisa Johansson on her operatic post-punk Miman. Originally scouted from The Voice, Saboune’s grande contralto drones push through the slowcore and synth touched goth rock backing to convey themes of loss, heartbreak, and nihilism throughout this above all depressing list of pop songs.
In You Blew It!’s new, short, sweet, and generally backstabbing LP, they reach back into the Midwest Emo movement of the 90s for a final reinvention. Some bands, Mooseblood being prominent, have attempted revival and come out as nostalgia-fests, however this LP’s progression, individuality, and above all, in-group synergy have brought it above the usual critique.
[3/5]
Départe have found the perfect middle ground of their debut EP on their new album, surrounding itself with noise but pushing horrorcore sounds, such as in Ashes In Bloom, that portray guilt. The entrapment of black metal within this wall-of-sound is prolonged whilst they take doom metal, in Grief Echoes, and warp it dangerously. At times the music comes across more as generic than a masterful joining with ordinary black metal riffs played slowly backed by simple blast beats. However, the production brings forth amazing textures, demonic, or robotic, vocals in the best tracks; grimy guitars working within a wall-of-sound. They also push the mellower side of Blackgaze within tracks like Wither, where the progression works to push the sound as a new standard. Deafheaven were dreamy and happy, Départe are noisy and horrific. Masterful as this is, I feel as though they have much more to give.
[Tess Dawson]
